The Blockchain Bang – Taking the Red Pill

The Dawn of a New Era

This article is meant as a follow-up to my previous article, the “The Blockchain Bang – Discovery of a New Homo Species”.

Incidentally, that first article wasn’t what I had intended to write initially but as I started, my mind drifted in other directions, and before I realized it - the resulting article.

Glad I let followed my instinct as that first article was trending for a while on Publish0x and had received good views. As I reflected on it, I came to the conclusion that it’s not done. I’m going to unashamedly milk it for all it has.

Like any successful movie producer that has had a blockbuster would bank on a sequel (or prequel as the case may be), I have decided to follow a tried and true formula. This article is my sequel.

What is so important to share that I have to do a sequel? Good question. I don’t know. Depending on how you look at it – it may not be that important. On the other hand, others may find it enlightening.

I will be a willing monkey tapping on his keyboard. Maybe something good will come of this.

Though my “The Blockchain Bang – Discovery of a New Homo Species” was a lighthearted look at collectors; you do see that there has been a change in how collectors collect. Doubtless, there has been a paradigm shift. A shift in mindset, behaviors, and with it a new language has transpired.

Okay, it's decision time. Here's the red pill. Take one and we proceed.

A Whole New World

A whole new world awaits. Don’t be overwhelmed by it. Yes, it may take a lifetime to process everything and make sense of it but remember – a journey of a thousand miles begins with a map. Let’s understand how to read the map first.

Old but New

It is not the scope of this article to present all the changes. So, in this article, we are not exploring what’s new but what’s old but also new. (Side note: Come to think of it, there is really nothing new under the sun).

Blocko-lingo

The essence of any language is not just communication but understanding what’s being communicated. I can communicate with my dog but I don’t always understand her. Likewise, two persons speaking the same language may not always understand what’s communicated. To name a few - context, experience, non-verbal cues all play a large part in the process. I'm no linguistic expert but that sounds about right.

We start with an introduction to some of what I will call Blocko-Lingo, short for Blockchain Language. This is not a deep dive into this topic but a scratch on the surface. I’ll go through a few commonly used terms to help you started on your journey. Do note that I'll be taking the liberty to exaggerate to make my points.

1. Coin

Image Source: Unsplash.com – Josh Appel

Before Red Pill:

We all know what coins are. Or do we now? A coin is usually a flat round piece of metal or alloy and is legal tender. It has two sides referred to as heads and tails.

After Red Pill:

It is a representation of a cryptocurrency. You can’t touch it. It is no longer physical. It exists as lines of codes and though not legal tender (this is debate-able), is still used as a medium of exchange with fiat. At least it is for now. There are entities that are trying to change that.

One thing to keep in mind is that ‘coins’ play a big role in this new universe. You’ll see that as we progress along in this article.

2. Farm

Before Red Pill:

A farm is where a farmer plant crops and rear animals.

After Red Pill:

A farm is no longer the above. Anyone can farm. There are no farms, no crops, and no animals. What on earth do you farm then? You farm yield. To be precise, you do Yield Farming. What in tarnation is that? Well, it is a process that allows the ‘coins’ holders to earn more ‘coins’. In this universe, people accumulate all kinds of ‘coins’ and love to talk about them all the time.

3. Faucet

Image Source (cropped): Unsplash.com – Walter Randlehoff

Before the Pill:

A faucet is just an ingenious invention that when turned on gives you water. Provided of course, it is linked through a series of pipes to a container or tank filled with water. We all understand that and hardly a day goes by without using one.

After the Pill:

You no longer get water from a ‘faucet’. Here’s the interesting part - you get more ‘Coins’ from ‘faucets’ but with a condition. Every few seconds, minutes, or hours as the case may be, you need to ‘click’ on a designated spot on your mobile phone or computer as dictated by this ‘faucet’ creator. You then get more ‘coins’. Well, not a whole ‘coin’. No, you don’t get a whole ‘coin’. You get maybe 0.0000000000000000001 ‘coin’, if you are lucky. Wouldn’t you wish there was a plumber who could fix that?

4. Gas

Before the Pill:

Gas can be something you use for cooking. Though I have no clue why Americans call Petrol, gas but to each his own. I’m sure someone with a doctorate in Thermodynamics will want to explain the correlation. Please don’t. You’ll just remind me that I flunked thermodynamics. Thermodynamics wasn’t dynamic for me at all.

I recalled being asked to write a program to locate oil wells. As you would have guessed, my program wasn’t so good at locating oil wells. However, it excelled at identifying random spots on the ocean. Suits me well, I wasn’t planning on looking for oil wells after graduating anyway. So, okay we’ve established that gas is used to power cars in America. I presume it’s because it’s short for gasoline? Fine, from now on, I’ll say my car runs on pet.

On a global scale and something we all understand and agree on - gas is something that we pass out after a heavy meal of beans.

After the Pill:

‘Gas’ is something that we all dread. It is more expensive than any petrol we know of and definitely more dreaded than the gas we passed out. In a certain blockchain, if you sneeze, you gotta pay ‘gas’. If you passed gas, you still gotta pay ‘gas’. How? You use your ‘coins’ to pay the ‘gas’. What this means is that any transaction you perform on a certain blockchain will cost you ‘gas’. Sometimes it is so ridiculous that it’s better to tell them to shov… I apologize, my keyboard wouldn’t let me type “e it” when it’s preceded by shov.

I’m sure at this point in time you may be looking around for the Blue Pill. I have news for you, buddy. It’s too late. Once you have taken the Red Pill, that’s it. There are no blue pills in this world. You have crossed over. So, get on with it.

5. Land

Before the Pill:

Well, simple. Land is earth. To be precise, it is the part of the earth that is not covered by a body of water.

After the Pill:

‘Land’ is not earth. Nobody has any idea what that is except that if someone is selling it, you better grab one too. And if you have beaucoup ‘coins’, grab 10, 100 or 1000 ‘lands’. It doesn’t matter if it’s covered by water or ice or lava.  Once you have more, others (yes, these refer to you as an NFTCollectus Unus Primus aka. an @$$****) who weren’t as fast as you in grabbing, will buy from you at a highly inflated price. So, you still come out top.

6. Mining

Image Source: Unsplash.com – Pedro Henrique Santos

Before the Pill:

Mining usually involves heavy equipment and lots of digging and displacement of earth/soil in order to obtain minerals or ores for further processing. It is labor and time-intensive.

After the Pill:

You need a computer or a mobile phone to ‘mine’. No heavy digging equipment is needed. You don’t even need a shovel. Wait, in some cases, you do need a shovel but not a physical one. I feel sorry for you if you are ‘mining’ with a shovel. You may be only slightly better off than the fella using the ‘faucet’.

Let’s reflect for a while on the California Goldrush. The hardware stores were the ones making the most money. The prospectors end up spending everything on equipment and fighting to keep their staked plot.

Well, here’s news for all you ‘miners’. Pretty soon you too can duke it out in an arena if or rather when ‘mining’ is no longer profitable for you.

In case you are wondering, miners here mine coins or tokens. Tokens for all intents and purposes are similar to coins.

Parting thoughts

The above is by no means exhaustive but you get the drift. Understand your source and your audience. Same words have different meanings when the source and audience are different. Take the Blocko-lingo red pill when communicating with the Blockchain Homo sapiens.

Thanks to this linguistic evolution, English is now my second, third and, fourth language.

How can you help? Educate others by being this second language teacher. Share this or other similar posts with Noobs to help them understand the language. Mass adoption will not happen without first understanding and being understood.

Look at it this way. You wouldn’t get on board a plane if you didn’t understand how it works, right? Wait, errr…that’s not a really good example. But you get my drift.

Thank you for taking this Red Pill with me. Blocko-Lingo is just one facet of this Blockchain world. They are many others.

Hope you’ve enjoyed reading this. Do like and follow for more. Thank you.

Header Image Credit (cropped): Unsplash.com – Kate Hliznitsova